Tarleton State University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 2, 2012

STEPHENVILLE, Texas—Creativity, dynamic construction and most of all perseverance contributed to a successful outing for a group of 38 engineering students from Tarleton State University as they competed in the 23rd annual Cardboard Boat Regatta held last weekend at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Arlington.

The regatta, sponsored by the River Legacy Foundation, challenges amateur boat craftsmen to design and build on-site and navigate boats made entirely of corrugated cardboard.

Under the supervision of Dr. Denise Martinez, associate professor of engneering and physics, the Tarleton students were given just over two months to design and build their boats. Members of Tarleton’s Engineering Club who had competed in previous years also held a boat building clinic and Q&A session to assist this year’s competitors.

“I love participating in this event with the freshmen engineering students,” said Martinez. “This is an excellent opportunity for students to go through the entire design process and take something from an idea in their head through analysis and fabrication, to a completely functional, final product. In addition, since this is a fundraising event for the River Legacy Foundation in Fort Worth, we discuss giving back to the community, and this is a fun way to do that.”

Tarleton students entered 10 boats in the regatta and advanced eight of them to the semifinals, of which three qualified for the finals. A total of 157 boats from across Texas were entered in the competition that included youth and adult divisions.

Four trophies were awarded to the Tarleton teams, including a 1^st place fastest finish in the Dolphin division (3-5 crew members) on the “Feeling Nautical” watercraft designed by Jeremy Dooley, Brandon Oliver, Jared Slemmons and Caleb Fuchs. Tarleton students Blake Randolph, Ian Lewis, Jose Vega and Edwin Gonzalez earned 2^nd place in the Dolphin division with their boat, “Jawz.”

In the Guppy division (1-2 crew members), Seth Carroll, Cole Strevey, Will Ligon and Thomas Moody were awarded a trophy after their boat “Flow Rider” finished with the third-fastest time.

Contest organizers also presented the Admiral’s Pride honorable mention trophy to Collin Bailey, Matthew Thompson, Michael Baldwin and Andrew Fletcher for their outstanding entry, “Banzai.”

“This is a very engaging experience for the students, and countless numbers of students have told me how much fun they had,” said Martinez. “This year in particular, a lot of the students invited their parents to the races. One parent even invited me to ride the Sky Coaster with her, which took us 183 feet in the air and drops you. If that’s not building parent relations, I don’t know what is! From this, Tarleton gets a lot of good, positive publicity, which is great for all of us.”

For more information about Tarleton’s engineering program, please visit www.tarleton.edu/engineering.

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Tarleton State University
A member of The Texas A&M University System

Contact: Kurt Mogonye
254-968-9460
mogonye@tarleton.edu